In the studio: Volbeat

Danish rock 'n' metallers invite you to boogie on album six…

Introduction

When Volbeat announced that Anthrax guitarist Rob Caggiano would not just be producing their fifth album, 2013’s Outlaw Gentlemen & Shady Ladies, but joining the band, eyebrows were raised.

Did the shredding, ESP-wielding beanie aficionado fit with a band whose stock in trade is fusing metal with 50s rock ’n’ roll and rockabilly?

I took my time to get the details right and just followed what I had in my heart

Clearly, yes - …Shady Ladies was a hit, reaching the top 10 in the US album charts (the first Danish act since Aqua, no less) while the album track Room 24 was even nominated for a Grammy award.

So with Caggiano now firmly in the fold, fans wondered if new album, Seal The Deal & Let’s Boogie, might continue the heavier vibe that’s brought them global success, but singer/guitarist Michael Poulsen wasn’t sweating expectations for album six - he just took his time.

“I decided to stay at home for half a year and write,” he explains. “I took my time to get the details right and just followed what I had in my heart. I wasn’t thinking too much about whether I needed a rockabilly song or a metal song or a country song… it was more about getting into the essence of Volbeat.”

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Signature Volbeat

Tapping in to that essence, however, required a change of plan…

“I was originally supposed to continue the story of the previous album,” Michael reveals. “But then when I got into the mood, I just sensed that was not the direction I wanted to go in. So I just started from step one again.”

I was sat down with a guitar and the melodies just started flowing out of me

Step one was The Devil’s Bleeding Crown, the album’s opener and lead single - a foot-stomping riffathon that Michael describes as “a signature Volbeat track” - but the other songs sprang forth from a more unfamiliar place.

“I was sat down with a guitar and the melodies just started flowing out of me, and I was like, ‘What’s going on here?!’” Michael recalls. “I looked at the guitar and noticed that it was tuned in E - we almost always tune in D! But it gave me a lot of space to work with the melodies.”

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Caging Caggiano

If the tuning wasn’t the Volbeat norm, Michael’s gear choice is rigid - recording was done with the Gibson SG and Marshall combo he describes as “like putting on the right pair of shoes”, and that’s it.

Rob is more of a studio guy than we are. He loves it - if we don’t pull him out, he’d still be in there now!

It’s a stripped-down approach that carries over to the studio sessions - something that contrasts with the mindset of the band’s newest member…

“John [Larsen, drums] and I, we can do a record in three or four weeks and then we’re done,” he notes. “Rob is more of a studio guy than we are. He loves it - if we don’t pull him out, he’d still be in there now!”